If you missed Sunday's broadcast, please catch up by following the link below. (For the foreseeable future, we be running our Sunday morning services digitally. Please go to our website on Sundays at 10:30 to join in)
The BFG is a story by Roald Dahl about a Big Friendly Giant, who catches dreams, put’s them into jars, only to blown them into the dreams of children each night. He says,
'Here is the dream catcher,' he said, grasping the pole in one hand. 'Every day I is going out and snitching new dreams to put in my bottles.’
We can stop dreaming
God is still speaking but we can stop dreaming - hearing God’ voice - for a number of reasons. Today we’ll deal with the first two.
i) Because we are too busy
During this Coronavirus the planes that used to fly over my home and the noise pullout on has been dramatically reduced. This has led to hearing birdsong in a much clearer way. Many of us have way too much ‘noise pollution’, so we are not hearing God’s voice. If we are always caught up in our own heads, listening to head phones, talking on the phone… we are not making space to hear God.
Are we allowing what is most important - our relationship with God - to become the slave and subject to things that are less important?
ii) Because of discouragement
Joseph is going to face many trials. He could have concluded that Dreams are pointless, more trouble than they are worth! Life can beat us up. Youthful hopefulness can give way to protective cynicism. We reduce our faith down to going to church, reading the bible and praying. However, we won’t take the risk of believing that God is speaking. We won’t attempt to walk on the water because we reduce the lesson down to being about about Peter rather than encouraging us to take the risk of actually getting wet ourselves!
Discouragement can hit all of us. We can feel like ‘Father Mckenzie’ in the Beatles song who is "writing a sermon he knows that no-one with hear…” We can all feel like we’re wasting our time, achieving very little…
RESPONSE
We need to hear God’s voice. His word spoken into our heart is the antidote to discouragement. To hear his word, we all need to make time to be with Him as we would make time to meet that client, be at that meeting, watch that show, bath the children…
COMMUNITY GROUP STUDY – GOD IS STILL SPEAKING, ARE WE STILL DREAMING?
Opener/Ice-breaker
What has been the funniest/strangest dream that you've had?
Introduction - please read in your group
Please read Read Genesis 37:5-11.
God spoke to Joseph in two dreams. These dreams were not received well by his family who became hateful and defensive. Jacob, Joseph's father, and his family should have known better; they had a history of God speaking to them in dreams. However, even their poor response is used by God to actually fulfil His promises!
God has promised to speak to his people, but we can fail to listen. Jesus has said,
“I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth.” (John 16:12-13)
We can stop hearing because we are too busy, discouraged or have not been teachable so have not learned to listen. Many struggle to think that God loves them and would want to speak to them.
During last week's devotionals, we looked at 3 basic practices that will help all of us to hear and do what God says. These were:
1. Read His word prayerfully
2. Keep a journal -write down what you think God is speaking to you about .
3. Share ‘dreams’ and pray with others
God is still speaking, are we still dreaming - are we giving quality making time to prayerfully listen to our Father's voice?
Discuss together
Do you have any examples from the last week of God speaking to you through His word?
Discuss/share in smaller groups from Sunday’s message:
What did you hear from the Holy Spirit?
What will you do because of it?
How can we pray for you?
Notices
Please share from this week’s Church News